Set a Course

I'm excited to hear it. Looks like you've got a project. : )

Thanks a bunch, Chris.

I did indeed do some squinting and I really started to love my marketing job when I saw how I could incorporate things I had learned. SEO is about the organization of information and how people search, for example. Research is at a premium. Now if marketing could just focus a tiny bit on the Civil War, I'd be all set :)

So, take your example above. It *sounds* easy enough, but when you break it down, the course gets a bit more circuitous.

“I wanna do things that make me happy” is true, but you should consider adding, “and that will pay me enough to stay clothed, fed, and in a home.”

It's that last part that's tricky. And/or you might also define what kinds of things make you happy.

Some people are happy finding others a home to buy. Others are happy writing elegant lines of code. Still others are happy finding money for people's tax returns (thank goodness, my accountant is happy finding money back for me).

So, defining happiness is important. : )

That's a great proverb.

By all means, don't plan if you don't want big results. I've just yet to meet someone sitting around their living room getting successful. They're probably happy, or what passes for happy.

I think that there are those of us who want a life and go after it, and there are those of us who want a life and seek it through the TV screen. Both have their place.

Having a clear course is like the rudder on a ship – it keeps the ship headed in the direction that we want it do go, and enables us to reliably tweak our direction as needed. A ship without a rudder, when it hits rough seas, will be tossed about by the ocean, without a clear sense of direction. It is at the mercy of the sea. So, likewise, is a life without a clear sense of direction. It gets buffeted by life's challenges and storms. A rudder lets us set off for deeper waters, exploring life's adventures but always with our destination in sight on the horizon.

Here's another metaphor for you to think about: Imagine a plane, enroute from New York to Los Angeles. Did you know that it is off-course more than half the time? That's right. Cross winds and other factors cause it to drift off course. Constant, subtle course corrections help to steer it back on course so that it can reach its destination. In other words, if you were to plot a straight line between the two cities and then overlay the plane's actual course on top of it, you would find that it zig-zags slightly from one side to the other throughout its journey – but ultimately it continues to head in the right direction. Our lives are similar: We need a course, so we can reach our destination, our goal. But we have to be willing to make constant course corrections along the way to reach our goals.

Wonderful post! Personal responsibility; personal choice. Many people are unwilling to make the necessary sacrifice to achieve a goal. That is their choice. I choose to focus on my goal and work on it until it is achieved.

Since you make the ship analogy, remember that the bow is always positioned toward the horizon which is where the boat is going, but the captain is always cognizant of the stern to know where coming from. It's more keen with a sailboat, as the person handling the rudder can't haphazardly move it back and forth, but keep looking back to confirm the rear horizon is equally lined up.

Good post, Chris.

How timely! Thank you for such a candid and encouraging post.

I'm glad to drag you out. : )

I planned my wedding. That's planning.

Well, Chris – you might say I came face-to-face with your metaphor last weekend while fishing on a boat off of Montauk, Long Island. The big ocean swells got the better of me, and well, you can probably guess the rest. On top of that, we didn’t catch any fish. But we kept at it: the course was right, the time was right, the bait was right. It just didn't happen.

Not then, anyway. We lost the battle but that doesn’t mean we lost the war. We’re going out again this weekend — but we’ll make sure the seas are a little calmer this time around and we’ll try a different location, perhaps with different bait. Because, like you said, adjustments are sometimes necessary but that doesn't mean you stop trying. Today is dedicated to doing the same in my business.

I could not agree more. Setting the course is good. Breaking free from the existing friction that is holding you back is the hard part. Sometimes it takes an event to dramatically change the paradigm, sometimes it's friends/family pushing us. And sometimes, it is inspiration like this that gets us on our way – thank you!

By the way, if you need motivation to get more physical activity, check out http://www.beewellforlife.com where you'll find a pretty robust portal with expert blogs and interactive tools. Every mile you log on the site benefits breast cancer support. I am a guy and have been using it for a while – never thought I'd be walking 4 miles a day but am. I guess that was the motivation I needed.

Interesting article. Setting the goals are easy; following them is what separates the people that get results, and the people that dream. As existentialists believe, you are in complete control of your life. This can actually be intimidating, because only you can cause change; but it also empowering

Jason
http://twitter.com/StartupSidekick (Follow me on Twitter for more entrepreneurial advice)

Chris, I admire the “stop bellyaching and get on with it” slant of the post (and how you illustrate with your own tales of ship jumping).

I saw your note in the comments: “For instance, I have YEARS of great content on here, and there’s no easy way to get at it.”

This probably isn’t a sophisticated enough tool for your needs (and it’s still in early development) but a company called Anthologize (http://anthologize.org/) has a free plug in for organizing and editing WordPress blogs into ebooks.

I tend more towards having goals and a course of action myself, but was piqued by the idea that any one might be successful without them.

I'm I the only one who has the Styx song “Come Sail Away” stuck in my head? :-) Great analogy Chris, true on many levels and in many situations.

Great post! People in my circle wonder why we do the things we (family and I) do…

1. Try to exercise and eat healthy
2. Educate about life, people
3. Live simple and budget
4. Treat people right (Golden Rule)
5. Pray and pray more!

My wife and I set this course over 10 years ago, though we stumble, we run like heck to get back on track. What's great is some of our kids are older and really help out.

Thanks again for writing a great post to confirm, I'm not going crazy by striving to live my ordinary life, extraordinarily. :D

Excellent post, Chris! It got me thinking about choices, and the choices that we make every day which determine whether we come in to work one day and find ourselves before the pink slip without warning. We then ask ourselves what did we do to deserve this. Sometimes no answer. Sometimes the company folds or moves out of state/country. Choices we make on Twitter or Facebook and other networks and how we're (your words) threading the needle. Thanks for the reminder!

If you can't get up and do it again you won't be no good to anyone.

Stay the course and be passionate and you will win.

My biggest career failures (and I often joke I’m the poster child for career mismanagement) have been the result of poor planning. Looking back they seem to be best characterized as a conglomeration of fantasy-driven and fear-driven planning. First, I’d aim way higher than my resources could possibly accommodate, which would have been painfully apparent had I begun with rational planning. Realizing this I would proceed to create irrational plans that were top loaded with fantasy-based assumptions. After devoting way too much time and effort chasing windmills I would then succumb to overwhelming fear caused not just by lost time and resources, but also by the realization that time was running out due to that pesky limit on the years we are allotted to convert on our dreams. And one of the most predictable lessons I’ve learned from life is that anything motivated by fear is virtually certain to fail. So coming from fear, I’d then attempt to make up for lost time by doubling down on the exact same insanity that got things off the wrong foot to begin with! I call this Stupid Genius, and I had truly mastered the art.

While I’m quick to quote the old adage that “if you don’t have a plan, any route will get you there,” after many ill-utilized years in my career I finally figured out that while solid rational plans are clearly superior to those that stem from either fear or fantasy, plans in general have a nasty habit of immediately becoming less relevant the moment after they are made. It has to do with the simple fact that circumstances are always changing, as others have so aptly pointed out.

The tact I’ve taken lately to attain “escape velocity” has to be identify a general direction (call it a strategy) and allow my tactical actions to automatically change through a mechanism of dynamic, feedback-driven planning that adjusts as circumstances change, but still keeps my “ship” on course. In other words, I’ve also found that this is as simple as: 1) finding what excites me (strategy), 2) immersing myself into it (tactics), and 3) going with the flow (self-adjusting plans). Will it work? Only time will tell.

Oh so true, Chris. I have been blogging about this very subject since I started my newest career. Goals and wish lists are fine, but assessment and adjustment along the way are essential to your success. Thanks for your post.

It's tricky some days. Working for what matters is always a challenge. One foot, one breathe, one plan.

Always happy to be helpful. My goal is to strike where you need me to strike. : )

Threading the needle. Now you're speaking my language. : )